Real Sound released a recent interview with MAPPA vice president and animation producer Hiroya Hasegawa, whose credits include all seasons of TV series like Vinland Saga, Oblivion Battery, and The Ancient Magus Bride. When asked about anime production issues and what’s necessary to overcome them. Hasegawa replied:
“There are many issues to be addressed, not just at MAPPA, but one is that, unlike when we first joined, the number of people who casually come into contact with animation has increased over the past few years, and when they get involved in animation production, they often find that the world is different from what they had imagined.“
“However, it is no use actively appealing that animation is hard work,” Hasegawa continued, “and I am thinking about how to fill this gap. In terms of working styles, I have the impression that there are more people in the production field who want to separate their work and private lives and strike a balance between the two than before. I think it is important for a company to take a stance of not allowing individuals to work in a way that does not allow them to maintain this balance.“
Hasegawa also says MAPPA is considering a way of education that allows mentors to transfer their skills equally to multiple people. The lack of proper long-term mentorship at the workplace has long been cited as a major factor in suggested declines in animator abilities within the industry. Short, crunching schedules mean there isn’t time to pass on skills, and to compensate for these short schedules, large numbers of freelancers are used, many of whom don’t learn from and implement the corrections (retakes) advised by animation directors due to further scheduling conflicts.
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These corrections are an important part of development; without them, animators move on to new work with a major title under their CV despite errors and not understanding how they could’ve improved, spreading the problem further in later productions. Animation director Terumi Nishii (Jujutsu Kaisen 0, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Penguindrum) warned that these retakes would cause effects like anime budgets intended for three years growing to five:
“But the budget will be used up on other works 😋, and I think there will be an increase in bankruptcies. How many animators will be able to survive at that time? The ones who are careless will be the ones who are laid off. Let’s all study!” she said in a post from 2024.
MAPPA’s past production troubles have led to it often being at the center of anime industry criticisms. These particularly intensified during the production of Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2, spawning fan criticism for unfinished episodes and even its freelancers rallying against the company while the series aired.
Hasegawa explores other topics in the interview, such as the pros and cons of original series versus adaptations, the selections of Konosuke Uda and Makoto Nakazono as Ranma 1/2 director and Oblivion Battery director, respectively, and how Vinland Saga director Shuhei Yabuta pitched the series to MAPPA, which it ultimately took on with the largely the same staff; WIT Studio didn’t have the capacity for it and Yabuta’s team had already begun work on Season 2. Multiple WIT titles were handed over around that period, such as Attack on Titan (to MAPPA) and The Ancient Magus Bride (to Studio Kafka).
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MAPPA also touched on its various business streams — an advantage it has over many other studios. These include merchandising, event planning, distribution, and advertising, which provide “many opportunities in this company. If you have something you want to create and are persuasive enough to attract people, you can aim for production desk or producer roles even if you are new to the company,” Hasegawa said.
Source: Real Sound
© Tatsuki Fujimoto / Shueisha, MAPPA
© Gege Akutami/Shueisha/JUJUTSU KAISEN Project
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